WEATHER: Thank goodness we had a bit of a break in the heat this week. We still started the week with daytime highs in the high 90's but ended up with mid 80's at the end of the week. The nighttime lows went down as well with the week ending in the low 70's, we did not need to use the air conditioning this week! While the start of the week was hot and had little wind movement on shore, we did have the first tropical depression of the year develop to the southeast, and it brought overcast skies on Thursday and Friday, which resulted in the lower temperatures, and also increased winds.

WATER: The surface temperatures in the Sea of Cortez at the end of the week were between 77 and 82 degrees with the cooler water being toward the west and south. Directly south of us we had 71-degree water and at the end of the week we had cold water push across the Cape and bring the Pacific side down to the 65-66 degree range. There was a very cold area between the beach and about 5 miles out from just up around the Golden Gate Bank to the lighthouse that was between 56 and 60 degrees, and very green as well. At the start of the week we were still seeing the large swells from the west that were a result of that dissipated storm during the middle of last week to the southwest. During the middle of the week the swells shrunk to the usual 2-4 feet and then at the end of the week the tropical depression southeast of us brought in larger, slightly confused swells from that direction, but at the end of the week they had already started to shrink as well.

BAIT: Large Caballito at the normal $3 per bait, small and large Mackerel at $3 per bait and plenty of mullet at $3 per bait. The large swells at the beginning and end of the week resulted in no Sardines being available then, but there were some during the middle of the week at the normal $20 per scoop.

FISHING:

BILLFISH: Boats that targeted Striped Marlin this week were having very mixed results. One day the fish would bite and the next they all had their mouths closed no matter what you put in front of them. When they were on the bite, getting three of four strikes on a mix of lures and bait was normal and the majority of the boats were able to release one or two fish. When the bite was off, no one was getting anything going. There were a few Blue Marlin caught this week as well as a couple of Black Marlin reported, and the size of the fish was decent at an average of 250 pounds. They were all found on the Sea of Cortez, and they struck on lures.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: For most of the week the action continued to be slow with a few fish being found among Dolphin, and most of the fish were footballs between 5 and 12 pounds. A good catch would be 4 fish. At the end of the week there were a few very nice fish between 100 and 150 pounds brought in, caught among the big black porpoise in the Sea of Cortez. Hopefully they will remain in our area for a few days longer.

DORADO: Dorado were the fish of the week for offshore anglers as they were almost everywhere on the Cortez side of the Cape. Along with numbers that averaged between three to six fish per boat came a very nice average size at between 15-20 pounds. A few small fish in the 10-pound class balanced out the few caught that were over 50+ pounds, and there were quite a few in the 30-40 pound category. Trolling lures along the current lines and under frigate birds worked very well and then once hooking up, dropping back a live bait for following fish had good results.

WAHOO: I did hear of a few Wahoo caught this week but did not see them, they were reported from up around Punta Gorda as well as in open water where the surface temperatures were higher than 80 degrees.

INSHORE: Fish of the week for inshore anglers was the Roosterfish. Although they were not everywhere, when you did find them they were there in good numbers. The high swells at the start of the week and at the end of the week put them off their feed for a while, but they did bite well once they got going. This week end I had a report of one boat fishing live bait catching two fish over 60 pounds, one of just under 40 pounds and quite a few in the 15-25 pound class. Up around San Jose there were good numbers of small fish in the 5-10 pound class.

Notes: There will be no report next week, I hope the weather in Sun River, Oregon is good as I am looking forward to some golf and fly fishing there! Until next month, tight lines!